My wife drives a Rover 25 Imression 1.4. A few days ago the Engine Management light came on and she took it to the Garage where they charged her £88 to tell her what the problem was !! They said that it is to do with the (an) exhaust component, where the oxygen meets the fuel. (Fault code P170). They also found the Lamda switching slow on test drive and according to the Garage it's going to cost £280 to fix.

My wife broke her leg at the beginning of May and the car has been in the garage for 7 weeks and was never turned over, or driven out. I was wondering if this could have played a part, or even have caused the engine management light to come on and that there is (hopefully) no need for anything to be done to the car. ?

My engine warning light (on a Ford Focus) came on a few months back, and I too took it to the Garage. The stuck it on a machine, reset the warning light and did nothing, (no charge) told me to come back if it came back on again..........it hasn't.

So, strongly suggest you get a second opinion, just in case.

A garge that charges £88 just to diagnose sounds a bit steep to me, I've been using the same garage for about 10 years - Good Garages are like gold dust!